Yesterday seemed a long time ago! Heat is definitely effecting the brain.Tricky navigating yesterday as most of that section has not been built so also minimal signeage till we were close to Metz. Morning tea was at the pretty town of Pont au Mousson which was  heavily congested with cars.

A lot of the tracks fortunately were shaded so often you were cycling through avenues of trees really nice.As the cycle paths for this part of the Moselle  have yet to be built there was  quite a long road section which we encountered after lunch so not busy as everyone wisely was having a siesta except us.We did also experience some  very rough tracks , a couple ahead of us appeared to have broken a spoke they went back onto roads.

The good part about any road section is that you see restaurants so we stopped at the first one; we weren’t missing lunch again! This was one of those great 3 course affairs and we hadn’t got too overheated by this stage so we tucked in happily with all the workmen eating there. First french snails of the holiday actually they werent the best, very chewy..2 bottles of water drunk we were off into the heat again.

 

Very pretty farmland and woodlands.We then reached the site where the Americans poorly executed plan to rescue France from the German occupation meant 1000 American troops were killed in 60 hours, so there is a big memorial field to the Battle of Dornot.

We had planned to try and stay in Jouy aux Moselle where there is an incredibly well preserved roman aquaduct. So we cycled UP away from the river but couldnot find any sign of any accomodation even though the guide book said there was some there. Back down to the river. We peddled on and 5 kms later saw a sign to a hotel off we went towards it but it was on a major road .Hubby was concerned re noise ….turning this option down turned out to be quite funny later.

Our only choice now was to cycle on into Metz .This turned out to be an incredible city you could easily spend a few days here.

We collapsed into the first hotel we found in Cathedral square hardly any traffic allowed here this would be so peaceful.Once we’d got unpacked  showered in our characterful room 3 floors up of course, we wandered out into the city.It was totally buzzing and bands were setting up everywhere a music festival was on!!

A great atmosphere and wonderful voices however in cathedral square on a level with our window a large heavy metal rock band was setting up.Now I’ve always been more of a Joni Mitchell girl with maybe a bit of bob marley but heavy metal thumping bands noooo.

I also forgot to say we had ended up cycling 69kms in 38C heat in  very humid conditions so we needed sleep!

We asked if we could change rooms but no the hotel had no other rooms.Somehow even 2 sets of earplugs don’t block out thud, thud.We resigned ourselves to no sleep when suddenly at 10pn it stopped.Simon and Garfunkel below us continued but that was lovely to waft off to sleep to. Metz was a great city with  the most beautiful cathedral full of spectacular stained windows apparently the most in the world; including modern ones by mark chagall and a full immersion baptismal font from the 1600s.For all its delights we could not stay longer as  the the thought of another rock band outside our bedroom window was too much.

 

So a late departure we left Metz with some difficulty someone had changed the name of the bridge we had to leave on. Humidity was increasing so we decided to just cycle to Thionville 35kms away well signposted now and good tracks.

We past lots of relics of this areas industrial heritage old steel mills now being dismantled.Now it is a proper path we did see more bikes with panniers today.

We stopped for coffee at a bar just off the cycle track.The elderly couple running it were in their 80s and looked slim, muscular and very fit, really strong handshakes. All around the bar was their diving photos as they used to make diving films in the1980s,  they were very interested in our travels.

Seeing sights of Thionville once it cools down.Hopefully tonight we enter a cooling trend.Who would have thought we’d be needing to drink hydralite in the middle of June in France

(E xcuse Blog had to do it on my phone notebook doesnt like hotel hotspot)

Cathedral Hotel – great hotel and airconditioning!Breakfast very good

Cathedral square

Metz

 

Hotel Oliver(no aircon good fan)

Bike garage fully locked

Thionville

65 euro